Schottky Rectifiers Research Articles

Cryogenic temperature operation of NiO/Ga2O3 heterojunction and Ni/Au Schottky rectifiers

Vertical geometry NiO/Ga2O3 heterojunction (HJ) rectifiers and Ni/Au Schottky rectifiers fabricated on the same wafer and each with the same diameter (100 μm) were operated at 77–473 K to compare their capabilities in space-like environments. The HJ rectifiers suffer a 4-order reduction in forward current at 77 K due to the freeze-out of acceptors in the NiO, leading to MIS-type operation. By sharp contrast, the Schottky rectifiers have higher forward current and lower on-resistance at 77 K compared to 298 K due to improved carrier mobility. The on/off ratio of Schottky rectifiers at 77 K becomes similar to HJ rectifiers at 298–473 K. The reverse recovery time of Schottky rectifiers is reduced from 20 ns at 273 K to 16 ns at 77 K, while HJ rectifiers cannot be switched at this temperature. While the latter are superior for high-temperature applications, the former are better suited to cryogenic operation.

Achievement of low turn-on voltage in Ga2O3 Schottky and heterojunction hybrid rectifiers using W/Au anode contact

The use of the low work function (4.5 eV) tungsten (W) as a rectifying contact was studied to obtain low on-voltages in W/Ga2O3 Schottky rectifiers and NiO/Ga2O3 heterojunction rectifiers that were simultaneously fabricated on a single wafer. The devices were produced with varying proportions of relative areas and diameters, encompassing a spectrum from pure Schottky Barrier Diode (SBD) to pure Heterojunction Diode (HJD) configurations. The turn-on voltages with W contacts ranged from 0.22 V for pure Schottky rectifiers to 1.50 V for pure HJDs, compared to 0.66 and 1.77 V, respectively, for Ni/Au contacts. The reverse recovery times ranged from 31.2 to 33.5 ns for pure Schottky and heterojunction rectifiers. Switching energy losses for the SBD with W contacts were ∼20% of those for HJDs. The reverse breakdown voltages ranged from 600 V for SBDs to 2400 V for HJDs. These are the lowest reported turn-on voltage values for 600/1200 V-class Ga2O3 rectifiers that extend the range of applications of these devices down to the voltages of interest for electric vehicle charging applications.

Breakdown up to 12 Kv in NiO/β-Ga2O3 Vertical Heterojunction Rectifiers

Vertical heterojunction NiO/β n-Ga2O/n+ Ga2O3 rectifiers fabricated on 15 µm thick drift layers with carrier concentration 8.8 x1015 cm-3 and employing simple dual-layer PECVD SiNx/SiO2 edge termination demonstrate breakdown voltages (VB) up to 12 kV, on-voltage (VON) of ~2.2V and on-state resistance RON of 11.1-12 mΩ.cm2 . The breakdown field is ~8 MV. cm-1, close to the commonly accepted theoretical value. The associated power figure-of-merit, VB 2/RON is 13 GW·cm-2 . By sharp contrast, Schottky rectifiers concurrently fabricated on the same drift layers had maximum VB of 2.9 kV, but lower VON of 0.71-0.75 V. Transmission electron microscopy showed an absence of lattice damage between the PECVD and sputtered films within the device and the underlying epitaxial Ga2O3. The key advances are thicker, lower doped drift layers and optimization of edge termination design and deposition processes. Figure 1

Resistive switching suppression in metal/Nb:SrTiO3 Schottky contacts prepared by room-temperature pulsed laser deposition

Deepening the understanding of interface-type resistive switching (RS) in metal/oxide heterojunctions is a key step for the development of high-performance memristors and Schottky rectifiers. In this study, we address the role of metallization technique by fabricating prototypical metal/Nb-doped SrTiO3 (M/NSTO) Schottky contacts via pulsed laser deposition (PLD). Ultrathin Pt and Au electrodes are deposited by PLD onto single-crystal (001)-terminated NSTO substrates and interfacial transport is characterized by conventional macroscale methods and nanoscale Ballistic Electron Emission Microscopy. We show that PLD metallization gives Schottky contacts with highly reversible current-voltage characteristics under cyclic polarization. Room-temperature (RT) transport is governed by thermionic emission with Schottky barrier height ϕB(Pt/NSTO)∼0.71−0.75eV , ϕB(Au/NSTO)∼0.70−0.83eV and ideality factors as small as n(Pt/NSTO)∼1.1 and n(Au/NSTO)∼1.6 . RS remains almost completely suppressed upon imposing broad variations of the Nb doping and of the external stimuli (polarization bias, working temperature, ambient air exposure). At the nanoscale, we find that both systems display high spatial homogeneity of ϕB ( ⩽50meV ), which is only partially affected by the NSTO mixed termination ( |ϕB(M/SrO)−ϕB(M/TiO2)|<35meV ). Experimental evidences and theoretical arguments—based on a metal-insulator-semiconductor description of the M/NSTO—indicate that the PLD metallization mitigates interfacial layer effects responsible for RS. This occurs thanks to the reduction of the interfacial layer thickness and to the creation of an effective barrier against the permeation of ambient gas species affecting charge trapping and redox reactions. This description allows to rationalize interfacial aging effects, observed upon several-months-exposure to ambient air, in terms of a slow interfacial re-oxidation. Our work contributes to the fundamental understanding of interface-type RS and demonstrates that RT PLD offers a viable platform for the realization of robust, RS-free NSTO-based Schottky contacts.

Investigation into the impact of bulk defects in the drift layer on the electrical properties of GaN-based trench Schottky barrier diodes

Using numerical simulation tools, this work systematically investigates the impact of bulk defects in the drift layer on GaN-based trench metal–insulator–semiconductor barrier-controlled Schottky rectifiers. Investigations show that in forward conduction, the acceptor-type defects significantly increase the on-resistance (R on.sp). When the device is in reverse blocking mode, donor-type defects tend to weaken the charge-coupling effect, leading to early breakdown of the device, while acceptor-type defects show the opposite feature. In addition, our report identifies that the reverse blocking effect is significantly impacted when the defects are located in the region with maximum electric field magnitude. We also find that the acceptor-type traps generate a remarkable charging/discharging effect, which will destabilize the dynamic forward conduction process. Hence, we numerically prove that bulk defects should be avoided in actual power diodes.

Breakdown up to 13.5 kV in NiO/β-Ga2O3 Vertical Heterojunction Rectifiers

Vertical heterojunction NiO/β n-Ga2O/n+ Ga2O3 rectifiers with 100 μm diameter fabricated on ∼17–18 μm thick drift layers with carrier concentration 8.8 × 1015 cm−3 and employing simple dual-layer PECVD SiNx/SiO2 edge termination demonstrate breakdown voltages (VB) up to 13.5 kV, on-voltage (VON) of ∼2.2 V and on-state resistance RON of 11.1–12 mΩ.cm2. Without edge termination, the maximum VB was 7.9 kV. The average critical breakdown field in heterojunctions was ∼7.4–9.4 MV. cm−1, within the reported theoretical value range from 8–15 MV.cm−1 for β-Ga2O3. For large area (1 mm diameter) heterojunction deives, the maximum VB was 7.2 kV with optimized edge termination and 3.9 kV without edge termination. The associated maximum power figure-of-merit, VB 2/RON is 15.2 GW·cm−2 for small area devices and 0.65 GW.cm−2 for large area devices. By sharp contrast, small area Schottky rectifiers concurrently fabricated on the same drift layers had maximum VB of 3.6 kV with edge termination and 2.7 kV without edge termination, but lower VON of 0.71–0.75 V. The average critical breakdown field in these devices was in the range 1.9–2.7 MV. cm−1, showing the importance of both the heterojunction and edge termination. Transmission electron microscopy showed an absence of lattice damage between the PECVD and sputtered films within the device and the underlying epitaxial Ga2O3. The key advances are thicker, lower doped drift layers and optimization of edge termination design and deposition processes.

Voltage and Current Characteristics of Schottky Barrier Diodes and Rectifier Diodes Exposed to Standard Lightning Impulse Voltage

Lightning surges are one of the major reasons of bypass diode (BPD) failure in photovoltaic modules. In this study, standard lightning impulse voltages (SLIVs) were directly applied to Schottky barrier diodes (SKB diodes) and rectifier diodes (PNJ diodes) with different electrical specifications. The critical voltages Vc of SLIV at which the diodes were damaged and the temporal variations of diode current (iD) and voltage (vD) were measured. It was found the iD‐vD characteristics can be categorized into a total of eight patterns: four patterns for the forward SLIV application and the four for the reverse SLIV application, regardless of diode types. The measured results imply that the irreversible voltage dip that occurs before the termination of the reverse breakdown contributes significantly to diode damage in the both forward and reverse SLIV applications. SKB diodes exposed to the reverse SLIV are easily damaged at the lowest magnitude of SLIV among all combinations of diode types and SLIV directions. Once a diode has been damaged due to the first SLIV application, the second application of SLIV to the same diode causes remarkable change in the iD‐vD characteristic even if the magnitude of the second SLIV is smaller than Vc. © 2024 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Post-trench restoration for vertical GaN power devices

The impact of the post-trench restoration on the electrical characteristics of vertical GaN power devices is systematically investigated in this work. Following the achievement of microtrench-free GaN trench structure with modified dry etching conditions, the post-trench tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH)-based wet etching and UV/Ozone-based oxidation process are employed to further refine the trench profile. It is shown that the c-plane trench bottom is restored to the level of unetched surface, as evidenced by the improved Schottky interface. Additionally, the post-trench treatment exhibits the anisotropic characteristics with the preferred rounded corner profile on m-plane sidewall compared to a-plane sidewall. The simulations and experimental results demonstrate that the trench MOS barrier Schottky (TMBS) rectifier based on m-plane sidewall could suppress the electric field crowding at the trench corner and, hence, reduce the reverse leakage current by 1–2 orders of magnitude. Furthermore, the MOSCAP test structures were fabricated on the trenches. The extracted interface trap density (Dit) confirms the effective restoration of trench bottom. However, the sidewall surface exhibits the relatively large Dit, which emphasizes the necessity of optimizing the sidewall, particularly for devices incorporating sidewall channel. The demonstrated post-trench restoration technique improves the surface quality and trench structure for the significantly enhanced electrical performances, which is essential for the development of vertical GaN power devices.

Hybrid Schottky and heterojunction vertical β-Ga2O3 rectifiers

Schematic of hybrid Schottky and Junction Barrier Schottky Ga2O3 rectifiers. Breakdown voltage increased as the proportion of heterojunction area did, from 1.2 kV for Schottky rectifiers to 6.2 kV for pure heterojunction devices.

Simulation study of a fast speed trench Schottky rectifier with an isolated gate

A novel trench Schottky rectifier with an isolated gate (IG-TSR) is proposed and investigated by simulation. It features an isolation of a trench MOS poly-gate from an anode metal in a conventional trench MOS barrier Schottky (TMBS) rectifier. In the proposed fabrication process, the isolation can be created by modifying the layout pattern without any additional process step or manufacturing cost. Because of the isolation of the trench MOS poly-gate from the anode metal, the capacitance between the cathode and the anode (Cds) of the proposed IG-TSR decreases significantly, which results in a fast switching performance. According to the simulation results, IG-TSR holds a 17.4% reduction in reverse recovery time (Trr) and a 22.1% reduction in reverse recovery peak current (Irm) compared with TMBS, and other related forward and reverse performances are basically unchanged. Therefore, the proposed IG-TSR is a competitive device for high frequency and high efficiency applications in power systems.

15 MeV proton damage in NiO/β-Ga2O3 vertical rectifiers

15 MeV proton irradiation of vertical geometry NiO/β-Ga2O3 heterojunction rectifiers produced reductions in reverse breakdown voltage from 4.3 kV to 3.7 kV for a fluence of 1013ions·cm−2 and 1.93 kV for 1014 ions·cm−2. The forward current density was also decreased by 1–2 orders of magnitude under these conditions, with associated increase in on-state resistance R ON. These changes are due to a reduction in carrier density and mobility in the drift region. The reverse leakage current increased by a factor of ∼2 for the higher fluence. Subsequent annealing up to 400 °C further increased reverse leakage due to deterioration of the contacts, but the initial carrier density of 2.2 × 1016 cm−3 was almost fully restored by this annealing in the lower fluence samples and by more than 50% in the 1014 cm−2 irradiated devices. Carrier removal rates in the Ga2O3 were in the range 190–1200 for the fluence range employed, similar to Schottky rectifiers without the NiO.

Contact-engineered reconfigurable two-dimensional Schottky junction field-effect transistor with low leakage currents

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have been considered promising candidates for future low power-dissipation and reconfigurable integrated circuit applications. However, 2D transistors with intrinsic ambipolar transport polarity are usually affected by large off-state leakage currents and small on/off ratios. Here, we report the realization of a reconfigurable Schottky junction field-effect transistor (SJFET) in an asymmetric van der Waals contact geometry, showing a balanced and switchable n- and p-unipolarity with the Ids on/off ratio kept >106. Meanwhile, the static leakage power consumption was suppressed to 10−5 nW. The SJFET worked as a reversible Schottky rectifier with an ideality factor of ~1.0 and a tuned rectifying ratio from 3 × 106 to 2.5 × 10−6. This empowered the SJFET with a reconfigurable photovoltaic performance in which the sign of the open-circuit voltage and photo-responsivity were substantially switched. This polarity-reversible SJFET paves an alternative way to develop reconfigurable 2D devices for low-power-consumption photovoltaic logic circuits.

Effect of drift layer doping and NiO parameters in achieving 8.9 kV breakdown in 100 μm diameter and 4 kV/4 A in 1 mm diameter NiO/β-Ga2O3 rectifiers

The effect of doping in the drift layer and the thickness and extent of extension beyond the cathode contact of a NiO bilayer in vertical NiO/β-Ga2O3 rectifiers is reported. Decreasing the drift layer doping from 8 × 1015 to 6.7 × 1015 cm−3 produced an increase in reverse breakdown voltage (VB) from 7.7 to 8.9 kV, the highest reported to date for small diameter devices (100 μm). Increasing the bottom NiO layer from 10 to 20 nm did not affect the forward current–voltage characteristics but did reduce reverse leakage current for wider guard rings and reduced the reverse recovery switching time. The NiO extension beyond the cathode metal to form guard rings had only a slight effect (∼5%) in reverse breakdown voltage. The use of NiO to form a pn heterojunction made a huge improvement in VB compared to conventional Schottky rectifiers, where the breakdown voltage was ∼1 kV. The on-state resistance (RON) was increased from 7.1 m Ω cm2 in Schottky rectifiers fabricated on the same wafer to 7.9 m Ω cm2 in heterojunctions. The maximum power figure of merit (VB)2/RON was 10.2 GW cm−2 for the 100 μm NiO/Ga2O3 devices. We also fabricated large area (1 mm2) devices on the same wafer, achieving VB of 4 kV and 4.1 A forward current. The figure-of-merit was 9 GW cm−2 for these devices. These parameters are the highest reported for large area Ga2O3 rectifiers. Both the small area and large area devices have performance exceeding the unipolar power device performance of both SiC and GaN.

Silicon Carbide Power Devices: Progress and Future Outlook

Silicon Carbide (SiC) power devices have become commercialized and are being adopted for many applications after 40 years of effort to produce large diameter wafers and high performance device structures. This paper provides a historical perspective of the key breakthroughs that were needed to make progress towards this goal. The JBS rectifier concept was a critical innovation required to make SiC power Schottky rectifiers viable. The Baliga-Pair or Cascode concept was an intermediate step to realize a practical SiC power switch in the 1990s. An essential unique innovation created in the 1990s was the shielded planar SiC power MOSFET structure that is now commonly used for commercial products. Shielded trench-gate SiC power MOSFETs were also proposed in the 1990s which led to commercial products in the last 5 years. Although achieving a low specific on-resistance in SiC power MOSFETs was essential at the inception of the technology, its penetration into power electronics applications is now driven by performance metrics for high frequency circuits. Device structural enhancements to improve the high frequency figures-of-merit are described that have led to major strides in performance. This includes the JBSFET concept where a JBS diode is integrated into the MOSFET structure to suppress current flow through the body diode; the SG and BG MOSFET structures which reduce the gate-drain charge; and the OCTFET structure where the gate-drain overlap area is reduced. Future developments in SiC power devices include increasing the blocking voltage rating to expand the applications spectrum. In addition, a SiC monolithic bi-directional switch has been demonstrated to allow implementation of matrix converters; and a SiC monolithic reverse blocking switch has been demonstrated to allow deployment of current source inverters.

Ion energy dependence of dry etch damage depth in Ga2O3 Schottky rectifiers

The β-polytype of Ga2O3 has a high critical electric field strength (∼8 MV.cm−1) and can be grown as large diameter (6 in.) single crystal boules by inexpensive melt-growth techniques. This makes it promising for next generation power electronics and solar-blind UV photodetectors. Since wet etching is not feasible for patterning such devices due to the chemical inertness of Ga2O3, attention is focused on dry etching, with the attendant issue of surface modification due to chemical or ion-induced changes. In this work, we demonstrate that dry etch damage in β-Ga2O3 is manifested by a reduction in near-surface carrier concentration, possibly due to the introduction of Gav acceptor states. The depth to which the carrier density is affected depends on the interplay between ion energy and etch rate, with faster etch rates reducing the depth of the remaining damaged region. The maximum damage depth observed experimentally from capacitance-voltage profiling on Schottky rectifiers was ∼ 110 nm, well beyond the range of the ions in the Inductively Coupled Plasmas and emphasizing that rapid diffusion of point defects occurs into the sample during the etch step. Using Schottky rectifier structures as a platform to understand the effect of dry etch damage on device parameters, we found that on-state resistance was more affected than ideality factor or breakdown voltage, with a large increase (5x) for ion energies ≥ 325 eV. Reverse current density characteristics showed the presence of trap-assisted space-charge-limited conduction in the damaged layers. The implications for high power rectifier fabrication are discussed.

Comparative study on short-circuit and surge current capabilities of 1.2 kV SiC SBD-embedded MOSFETs

This paper presents a comparative study on the short-circuit and surge current withstanding capabilities and the static and turn-on switching characteristics of commercial 1.2 kV SiC Schottky barrier diode (SBD)-embedded metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs). The results confirmed that MOSFETs with a larger SBD area ratio had higher leakage current through the SBD during short-circuit transients due to a higher electric field and lattice temperatures as high as roughly 1120 K at the SBD, which resulted in reduced short-circuit withstanding capabilities. It was also found that MOSFETs with a smaller SBD area ratio had reduced surge-current capabilities in embedded SBDs. We conclude that is not due to the small SBD area ratio but to a weak bipolar operation of the Junction Barrier and Schottky rectifiers even in high current regions.

Superior high temperature performance of 8 kV NiO/Ga2O3vertical heterojunction rectifiers

NiO/Ga2O3heterojunction rectifiers were measured over a temperature range up to 600 K and found to exhibit a near-temperature independent breakdown voltage of &gt;7 kV, far in excess of previous Schottky rectifier results.

Effect of thermal annealing on the electronic parameters of Al/p-Si/Cu double Schottky barrier heights

In this work, performance enhancements of a double Schottky rectifier diode with Cu contact on top of p-type Si and a back-side-Al contact due to an optimized thermal annealing process are reported. A decrease of the ideality factor for non-ohmic and ohmic Schottky contacts from 3.17 to 1.15 could be observed in conjunction with a barrier height reduction from 0.59 eV to 0.48 eV by thorough hydrofluoric acid treatment prior to annealing the sample for 15 min. at 450 °C in N2 atmosphere. Moreover, the barrier height and built-in voltage values decreased by increasing frequency in the ohmic contact structure. The results presented in this work demonstrate such ohmic contacts to be potential candidates for high current and low resistance Schottky diodes and applications.

Mg-implanted vertical GaN junction barrier Schottky rectifiers with low on resistance, low turn-on voltage, and nearly ideal nondestructive breakdown voltage

Vertical GaN junction barrier Schottky (JBS) diodes with superior electrical characteristics and nondestructive breakdown were realized using selective-area p-type doping via Mg ion implantation and subsequent ultra-high-pressure annealing. Mg-ion implantation was performed into a 10 μm thick Si-doped GaN drift layer grown on a free-standing n-type GaN substrate. We fabricated the JBS diodes with different n-type GaN channel widths Ln = 1 and 1.5 μm. The JBS diodes, depending on Ln, exhibited on-resistance (RON) between 0.57 and 0.67 mΩ cm2, which is a record low value for vertical GaN Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) and high breakdown (BV) between 660 and 675 V (84.4% of the ideal parallel plane BV). The obtained low RON of JBS diodes can be well explained in terms of the RON model, which includes n-type GaN channel resistance, spreading current effect, and substrate resistance. The reverse leakage current in JBS diodes was relatively low 103–104 times lower than in GaN SBDs. In addition, the JBS diode with lower Ln exhibited the leakage current significantly smaller (up to reverse bias 300 V) than in the JBS diode with large Ln, which was explained in terms of the reduced electric field near the Schottky interface. Furthermore, the JBS diodes showed a very high current density of 5.5 kA/cm2, a low turn-on voltage of 0.74 V, and no destruction against the rapid increase in the reverse current approximately by two orders of magnitude. This work demonstrated that GaN JBS diodes can be strong candidates for low loss power switching applications.

Experiment and analysis of repetitive avalanche low-current stress on 4H-SiC power devices

As a kind of 4H-SiC power device, the junction barrier Schottky (JBS) rectifiers, only containing the transition p + implantation region at the edge of the active region in the termination region, are adopted and fabricated to analyze the effect of the repetitive avalanche low-current stress on the SiO2/4H-SiC interfacial state of the devices. The breakdown voltage (BV) of the device shifts after the repetitive avalanche current stress, which results from the electron injects into the SiO2/4H-SiC interface and trapped by the interface states. Meanwhile, there is a tradeoff between the quantities of the trapped and de-trapped electrons by the SiO2/4H-SiC interface states when the BV reaches its saturated value. The junction temperature, total amount of carriers generated in the single avalanche event and repetitive total avalanche energy, affected by the pulse period (T), pulse number and turn-on period (D), are the key factors that affect the level of the BV shift.